Alonso confident for 2012

Fernando Alonso said he is confident Ferrari will return to winning ways in 2012, after struggling to match the pace of title-winning rivals Red Bull this season.

Tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix will mark the end of the 2011 season, in which Alonso has won just once, at the British Grand Prix in July. But the 30-year-old Spaniard said he felt Ferrari have made enough significant improvements to convince him that he will be able to challenge for the title next year.

He said: “I am confident to be fighting for the championship again next year and what makes me confident is that I am with Ferrari.

“I am quite happy from a personal point of view (with) how 2011 went, how the team approached this season and how we improved in areas where last year we were weak, so overall it is much stronger this year than last.

“Now I feel with a competitive car we can be very, very strong and we can be fighting for the world championship.”

Alonso said he is not concerned about finishing second in the 2011 drivers’ championship – he is currently third, 10 points behind Jenson Button of McLaren – but would love to finish this season with a win.

“Maybe with the possibility of rain or something on Sunday (tomorrow), maybe we can see a more unusual race with not always Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari as in the first five or six races,” he said.

“But, I think that is – well, very difficult. And very unlikely.

“We were expecting some good competitiveness of the car in India, Korea and Abu Dhabi, but we also hoped for some strange races – like in Korea, for example, we expected some rain or some more factors in the race.

“But we had very standard races in the last four or five, with dry weekends all the way through and with the potential at the moment of Red Bull and McLaren, we were nowhere near victories.

“So, here, I think it will not change too much. A victory remains very unlikely, but we will have to go for it.”